Skip to main content
Ventiva Medical

The problem

A blockage no one can see

Secretions build up inside a ventilated patient’s breathing tube and can plug it with little warning. The standard check misses it. A suction catheter slides past the plug and comes out clean, signaling an open airway that’s actually closing. Often the first sign is the patient’s oxygen falling.

How severe it gets

  • Low (0 to 9% occluded) 49.6%

  • Moderate (10 to 49%) 44.4%

  • Severe (50% or more) 6.0%

Breathing tubes grouped by how much of the airway became blocked [1]

  1. [1] Bhardwaj et al., 2025 (opens in a new tab)

When a tube blocks severely

  • 50%

    need emergency reintubation [1]

  • +5 to 6 days

    added to the median ICU stay [1]

  • 9.1%

    mortality [1]

  1. [1] Bhardwaj et al., 2025 (opens in a new tab)

The cost to hospitals

Each ventilated ICU day adds about $1,522* in cost [2]. With 5 to 6 extra days [1], one severe blockage adds roughly $7,610 to $9,132* per patient.

  1. [1] Bhardwaj et al., 2025 (opens in a new tab)
  2. [2] Dasta et al., 2005 (opens in a new tab)

*Incremental ventilation cost per ICU day, in 2002 US dollars.

Why we started

During ICU shadowing at a Raleigh trauma ICU, we watched a plug missed by suction lead to a cardiac arrest. That moment is why Ventiva exists.

What clinicians told us

In our survey of 20 ICU nurses, the two biggest fears about clearing a plug were pushing it deeper and losing PEEP [3].

  1. [3] Ventiva survey of 20 ICU nurses, 2026

  • “Airway protection is at the top of our priorities.”

    Haley Manning, RN, ICU nurse

  • “The earlier you detect something, the better.”

    Kevin Parrish, RT